Double coffee chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting
Dense, fudgy coffee chocolate cake with rich, dark chocolate and coffee frosting topped with a mountain of chocolate malt balls.
You might be all chocolated (yep, that’s a word now) out now but I’m taking my chances because this cake, this glorious, four-tiered cake sandwiched with fudgy, coffee-flavoured chocolate frosting, is the most chocolatiest of chocolatey cakes. I promise.
Woolworths asked me to come up with a recipe to tie in with their Celebrity Masterchef SA #CelebrityChef campaign and I was given coffee as my ingredient. I could do whatever I wanted and immediately I started thinking about cooking with coffee. I love adding a shot of strong espresso to my chili con carne and bolognese as it gives such a rich depth to the finished dish and adding coffee to a spicy rub for ribs or steak is a great way of enhancing the meaty flavours but by far my favourite way of using coffee is with chocolate.
Adding coffee to chocolate is magical. It makes the chocolate taste richer, darker and more intense and that’s why I knew that this would be pairing I would be basing my recipe on. And let’s face it, everyone is always looking for a great chocolate cake recipe and I have come to the rescue because this one is truly marvelous (if I do say so myself).
I made a really dense, moist chocolate cake and sandwiched it with rich, fudgy chocolate frosting which I spiked with some espresso. With that, I added crushed coffee-flavoured chocolate malt balls for texture and even more chocolate-coffee flavour. And then why not finish and already OTT cake with a ton more of coffee-flavoured chocolate malt balls? The end result is this show-stopper which had my guests drooling for more. For more awesome ways to cook with coffee, visit the Woolworths website.
Double coffee chocolate cake with chocolate fudge frosting
Ingredients
for the cake
- 400 g caster sugar
- 275 g flour
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
- 1.5 teaspoons bicorbonate of soda baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 100 g melted butter
- 2 eggs
- 250 ml 1 cup buttermilk
- 250 ml 1 cup hot coffee
for the frosting
- 200 g butter room temperature
- 600 g icing sugar sifted
- 50 g cocoa powder sifted
- 100 g dark chocolate melted, room temperature
- 2-3 tablespoons espresso
- 3 x 125g packs of coffee-flavoured chocolate malt balls I used Woolworths' Chuckles
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°c and grease and line 2x 20cm cake pans.
- In a large bowl, whisk together all the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until combined.
- Divide the batter between the two cake pans.
- Place in the oven and allow to bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. don't worry if the cakes sink a little in the center.
- Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool completely.
- To make the buttercream, beat the butter until light and fluffy (around 4-5 minutes). Add the sifted cocoa powder and icing sugar then beat for another 2 minutes until combined.
- With the mixer running, slowly pour in the chocolate and mix well.
- Add the espresso, one tablespoon at a time, and mix until you have glossy buttercream.
- When the cakes are cool, carefully sliced them in half lengthwise, resulting in 4 cake layers.
- Stack the cakes with buttercream in the centre, adding the crushed chocolate malt balls between every layer.
- Finish the cake with the remaining buttercream and top with chocolate malt balls.
I make the cake and my customers love it!!!
Hi
I have made this recipe twice now and both times my cake has stuck to the pans. I have greased the pans really well but don’t know why. Are you able to assist. The cake tastes so good so I really want it to look good too! Please help!
I would suggest using parchment paper. It’s a fail-safe way to make sure your cakes will release from the pan.
2nd time making!!! It’s so yummy – can you tell me how the malt balls have the shiny look and are able to stack up on top – it’s so pretty but I looked over the recipe repeatedly and do not see directions for that step – thank you in advance!!! ???
What kind of dark chocolate do you use? Thanks!
I like using Lindt or Valrhona. 70% is my ideal dark chocolate.
Hi Alida.
Should I add the butter, eggs and hot coffee in any particular order considering the possibility of the eggs cooking when mixed with hot coffee? My first attempt didn’t come out so well, the cake didn’t rise and I used 1.4 tsps baking powder+1.5 tsps baking soda. I also used normal white sugar instead of confectioners sugar. Do you know what i might have done wrong?
Nope, I just dump it all in together and mix well. I’ve never had issues. If the cake didn’t rise it could be that your raising agents have expired.
Love the recipe but is their anthing I can do to substute the espresso shot
Boiling water is a good substitute.
Hello,
I baked this cake twice and it was a success. Now I want to bake it for children. With what can I substitute the 250 ml hot coffee?
Regards, Daniëlle
Milk will work well. 🙂
Please could you advise if the 180 degrees is fab forced or not?
I would like to make this for my daughter’s birthday as she has asked for coffee cake but also loves chocolate – is it more chocolate flavour than coffee? Thanks.
I meant fan!
No, not fan assisted. If using fan assisted, bake at 160 until a skewer comes out clean. It’s definitely more chocolate in flavor.
Thank you.
Can I add chocolate chunks if so how much
You definitely can. A cup would be perfect.
Made this cake for my nieces’ birthday and it was a huge hit, so I made it for my mom’s and again, huge hit! The cake is so moist and decadent. I’ve had some issues with the frosting though. My butter sat our overnight and it was very soft. I followed the recipe and when adding the powdered sugar it comes out as a crumb-like texture. Add in the cocoa powder and it doesn’t get much better, but eventually it turned into almost a fondant texture. I added in espresso powder not realizing it was an actual shot of espresso. I could see how this would loosen up the frosting so I’ll have to try this next time. What I did on my Mom’s cake is I took 3 TBLs of cream and about 8 oz Marscapone and that gave it just a soft, light texture, it was amazing. My nieces I added in some melted butter to loosen it up and then it was fine. Clearly I need to read better, but this recipe is definitely staying in my book!
So happy you liked it! 🙂
Looks amazing! I’m going to attempt it this weekend. Is it plain or self raising flour you need? And normal or salted butter? Thanks in advance!
Plain flour and I used salted butter but you can definitely use unsalted. 🙂
Cannot wait to try this cake! Looks amazing! Love the decorating (grooved icing/frosting) and the Chuckles! Chocolate is a work of art, combining it with coffee in a cake…speechless!
Thanks Ben! Hope you like it.
Sorry if I sound abit dense bu can you tell me if the 2-3 tablespoons of espresso Is powder or if it’s mixed with water and needs to be cold before putting it in thanks
Good questions! The espresso is liquid espresso and it can be either hot or cold but I usually just use it hot straight out of the machine.
Mine went very liquid. Am I doing something wrong? Leaving it tonight to see if it dries a little bit. Maybe to do with the coffee. Please help.
Your oven might need to be turned up and add a bit of baking time.